Boxing

Filipino featherweight Genesis Servania might have lost his world title shot to Oscar Valdez last fall, but he made a big enough impression in that action-packed battle to secure a promotional contract from Top Rank. Top Rank announced on Wednesday that it has signed the 26-year-old Servania (30-1, 13 KOs) to a multiyear promotional agreement.

Heavyweight contender Luis “King Kong” Ortiz was not in a talkative mood on Tuesday, but manager Jay Jimenez was in an argumentative one. They were part of a media conference call, along with heavyweight world titleholder Deontay Wilder and promoter Lou DiBella, to discuss the Wilder-Ortiz title fight, which is scheduled for March 3 (Showtime,

While unified heavyweight world titleholder Anthony Joshua focuses on his task at hand — training for a much-anticipated unification fight with Joseph Parker on March 31 in Cardiff, Wales — Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is doing what promoters are supposed to do, which is plan ahead. Should Joshua defeat Parker — and he is

Ireland’s Andy Lee, who won a middleweight world title after a stellar amateur career, announced his retirement from boxing on Tuesday. Lee, 33, appearing on the Irish radio broadcaster Newstalk’s “Off The Ball” sports show, said he was done boxing and decided to end his career because “now is the right time.” In December 2014,

5:59 AM ET ESPN staff Callum Smith is preparing to take on seven-time world champion kickboxer Nieky Holzken in the World Boxing Super Series semifinal on Saturday after the withdrawal of original opponent Juergen Braehmer. With WBA Super champion George Groves awaiting in the final of the super-middleweight tournament, Smith (23-0, 17 KOs) had been

Junior middleweight John Vera is headed overseas to fight for the right for a world title shot. Vera, of Fort Worth, Texas, will take on Michel Soro on March 24 on Soro’s turf in Marseilles, France, Roy Jones Jr. Boxing Promotions has announced. Vera (18-0, 11 KOs) and Soro (31-2-1, 21 KOs) will be fighting

Late last year, Evander Holyfield’s Real Deal Boxing promotional company and the WBC announced that they would team up to stage an eight-man single-elimination tournament in the welterweight division. On Monday, they announced the participants in the Jose Sulaiman World Invitational, named after the late longtime WBC president, and that the first bouts of the

1:02 Danny Garcia sends Brandon Rios to the canvas in the ninth round with a strong right hand. Rios gets up before the count of 10, but the referee stops the fight. A roundup of the past week’s notable boxing results from around the world: Saturday at Las Vegas Danny Garcia TKO9 Brandon Rios –

One of the worst kept secrets in boxing was made official on Sunday, with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn’s announcement that former middleweight world titlist Daniel Jacobs will face Maciej Sulecki on April 28 in the main event of an HBO-televised card at Barclays Center in Jacobs’ hometown of Brooklyn, New York. Jacobs, Sulecki and

All Danny Garcia had known as a professional fighter was winning. He unified junior welterweight world titles and then moved up in weight and won a welterweight world title in 2016. But in his first defense, a much-anticipated unification fight with Keith Thurman last March, Garcia finally tasted defeat, losing a competitive decision. Garcia took

When David Benavidez and Ronald Gavril first met for a vacant super middleweight world title in September, they waged one of the best fights of 2017. That night, Benavidez survived a 12th-round knockdown and won a split-decision victory in a highly competitive fight as he was crowned, at age 20, the youngest 168-pound world titleholder

Devon Alexander, left, and Victor Ortiz fought to a majority draw on Saturday. Juan Yepez/Premier Boxing Champions Though it was not an official elimination fight for a shot at a world title, former welterweight world titleholders Devon Alexander and Victor Ortiz both badly needed a victory against a well-known opponent to have a chance to land

7:27 PM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show MANCHESTER, England — George Groves thoroughly disproved the theory by Chris Eubank Jr. that the WBA super middleweight champion was past his prime by

Raymundo Beltran likely made two dreams come true in one fight as he claimed a vacant lightweight world title in his fourth try on Friday night in the main event of the Top Rank ESPN card at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. In an action-packed battle, Beltran and former world titlist Paulus Moses

Usually the hard part to make a deal for a major fight is hashing out the money. But in the case of the proposed showdown between lightweight world champion Jorge Linares and junior lightweight titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko, the pound-for-pound king, that was a snap. In a matter of a few phone calls over the past

At his best, Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios was a lightweight world titleholder and a fan favorite for his all-action, unrelenting style. It has, however, been years since Rios has been at his best. Having moved up to junior welterweight and then welterweight, he is 3-3 in his last six fights since 2013, including a one-sided

Feb 16, 2018 ESPN staff George Groves has continued his war of words with Chris Eubank Jr. by claiming that he would have beaten his father Chris Eubank Sr. if they had met in the ring. Groves, 29, will make a second defence of his WBA super-middleweight title at Manchester Arena on Saturday night when

Laila Ali, considered by many to be the best women’s boxer in history, was one of 14 selected to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame on Thursday. Ali, the daughter of the late, great Muhammad Ali, is the first child of a Nevada Boxing Hall of Famer to also be selected. Muhammad Ali, the former